Making The Journey A Destination

by Tracy Hadden Loh and Andréa Livi Smith

Infusions of art into transportation infrastructure can help
generate a sense of place, engage communities, and support economic
development. Here's how you can make it happen.

This sculpture by French-born artist Niki de Saint Phalle, -The Three Graces, enlivened New York Avenue in Washington, DC, from March through October 2011. The installation was one of many efforts across the country to incorporate public art into transportation infrastructure.

You don't have to be standing in a museum to appreciate
artwork. In many places across the United States, you can see art while out
jogging, shopping, or, in the case of Washington, DC, while traveling to a
museum. In a broad median along New York Avenue in front of the National Museum
of Women in the Arts, bold and colorful dancing female sculptures by an
internationally renowned artist greeted commuters and visitors entering the
downtown area between March and October 2011.

This public art exhibition helped "transform a dull and barren
commuter corridor into a cultural and colorful gateway into the District of
Columbia's business district," says Colleen Hawkinson, a senior transportation
planner at the District Department of Transportation (DDOT).

Hawkinson is pointing out one of several transportation and
community issues that art enhancements can help address: boring concrete surfaces,
unwelcoming public spaces, and disruption of existing neighborhoods when new
roads and noise walls are put in. Art can enliven those paved surfaces and
noise walls, while creating public spaces that attract residents and visitors
alike.

Across the spectrum of surface transportation -- from
transit-oriented development and multimodal nodes to highways, interchanges,
streets, sidewalks, and trails -- infrastructure design needs to balance myriad
secondary objectives with the primary goal of getting people where they need to
go safely and efficiently. These other objectives include pleasing the
community and stakeholders, plus maximizing the value of adjacent properties.

Today, in communities across the country, no matter the speed or
mode of transport, travelers increasingly have the opportunity to experience
artwork while on the go. Walk along a city sidewalk, park your bicycle by a
country trail, or drive on a highway, and you might glimpse artwork that reflects
the local culture and brings a bit of whimsy and creativity into the public
realm. The process of creating public art can be challenging, but
transportation agencies and arts organizations are partnering to make works of
art a reality.

Art Creates a Sense of Place

Transportation agencies traditionally are focused on delivering
service: moving traffic, goods, and people through different modes. As Wendy
Feuer, assistant commissioner for urban design and art at the New York City
Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) puts it, "There are a lot of bigger
issues that result from transportation infrastructure that are hard to fix,"
such as traffic noise, crossing challenges or barriers, and visual impacts.
However, she adds, opening up the design process to include artists "brings new
ideas to the table...they see people where others see pavement. Art is a way of
humanizing infrastructure, a way to communicate and personalize identity and
location."

Liesel Fenner, the public art program manager at Americans for
the Arts, adds that art creates an awareness of one's surroundings that "causes
people to reconsider familiar spaces and look more carefully at what is around
them." In other words, incorporating art can help infrastructure create a sense
of place. And to be a "place" is to have a unique "personality."

Despite iconic historical examples of beautifying public infrastructure,
such as the Brooklyn Bridge (completed in 1883) and the streetlights of San
Diego's Gaslamp Quarter, conventional thinking has not looked at surface transportation
infrastructure as critical to creating a sense of place. That began to change
after enactment of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991
(ISTEA). The act created Transportation Enhancement activities, which, since
1992, have played a major role in improving the quality of U.S. transportation
infrastructure, in part through the inclusion of public art. Within ISTEA's
Surface Transportation Program funding category, the act called for a 10 percent
set-aside for transportation enhancement activities, one of which is "landscaping
and other scenic beautification." The stated purposes of these activities
include enhancing the built and natural environment and providing a sense of
place. The Surface Transportation Program and Transportation Enhancement activities
are among the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) programs administered
through State departments of transportation (DOTs).

In addition to qualitatively improving the travel experience, the
potent combination of place, transportation, and art can lead to numerous
benefits, as demonstrated by successful installations across the country.
Specifically, communities are finding that art in transportation serves as a
way of incorporating local culture into projects, a tool for encouraging public
participation, and an economic development strategy.

Transportation Enhancement Activities

The phrase "transportation
enhancement activity," with respect to any project or the area to be served by
the project, refers to any of the following activities as they relate to
surface transportation.

Provision of
facilities for pedestrians and bicycles.

Provision of
safety and educational activities for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Preservation
of abandoned railway corridors (including the conversion and use of the
corridors for pedestrian or bicycle trails).

Inventory,
control, and removal of outdoor advertising.

Archaeological
planning and research.

Environmental
mitigation to address water pollution due to highway runoff or reduce
vehicle-caused wildlife mortality while maintaining habitat connectivity.

Establishment of
transportation museums.

Source: FHWA.

Public Participation

Many aspects of transportation planning and capital construction
are best left to professionals with technical expertise. Public participation,
however, is a critical component of any successful transportation project.
Public participation has been mandatory for Federal-aid highway projects whenever
Federal funds are involved at least since 1958, and the role for public
participation in the planning process was expanded in ISTEA in 1991.

Major infrastructure projects can be derailed when public
participation goes wrong, stalling progress when cases wind up in court rather
than in agreement. In the case of the recently completed Ambassador Bridge
Gateway Project in Detroit, for example, the largest single construction
contract in the history of the Michigan Department of Transportation was on the
line. The environmental assessment for the project identified a need for the
department to address the socioeconomic impact of the I-75 bridge approach,
which would split the Mexicantown neighborhood into east and west sides. The
department addressed this need by constructing a pedestrian bridge connecting
the neighborhood, including art installations in the plazas at each end of the
bridge. Incorporating public art into the project enabled neighbors to
participate through community-based forums with the artist.

Creative landscaping at interchanges like this one along I–70 is the focus of A
Greener Welcome, a project to improve the aesthetics of the highway approach to
downtown Indianapolis.

Art has proven to be a highly effective medium for encouraging
public participation in transportation projects. When projects incorporate art,
hostility can be transformed into local pride and ownership of transportation
infrastructure. For example, when the Slavic Village Development Corporation
first began work to convert an abandoned railroad corridor into a trail in
Cleveland's Slavic Village, "there were naysayers," says Eric Oberg,
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy's manager of trail development in the
organization's Midwest Regional Office. And it didn't help that "there was a
lot of illegal graffiti along the corridor."

Incorporating art became a key part of the success behind
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy's Urban Pathways Initiative, which works to
encourage active transportation (such as walking and bicycling), healthy
recreation, and community engagement around trails in urban areas. In its work
on the Morgana Run Trail in Cleveland and the Metropolitan Branch Trail in
Washington, DC, conservancy staff found art to be a powerful tool for engaging
trail neighbors, giving them a way to discover, claim, and use the trail. On
the Morgana Run Trail, a "committed effort by the neighborhood to have artwork,
including large murals," has led to an "almost complete lack of graffiti" along
the trail, Oberg says.

The bottom line is that local communities want far more from
their transportation infrastructure than just compliance with standards and
mobility goals. "Communities nationwide are seeking a higher quality of
development that includes attention to aesthetics, and they are willing to put
money on the line to get it," says Kyle Lukacs, program coordinator of the
National Transportation Enhancements Clearinghouse.

In Indianapolis, IN, a coalition of groups banded together to
breathe new life into the bland, generic, and lifeless facade greeting
travelers arriving in Indianapolis via I-70. The stakeholders dubbed the
project A Greener Welcome, which entailed creating an attractive new look for
I-70 between the airport and downtown that included landscaping and major
public art installations at five highway interchanges.

Demonstrating the commitment of the local community with regard
to the project, pharmaceutical giant and major local employer Eli Lilly
contributed both a $1 million local match and volunteer labor from more than
8,000 employees through the company's Global Day of Service. The city of Indianapolis
and Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc., worked together to secure Federal
funding through the Indiana DOT by way of the Transportation Enhancement
program. Other partners included the West Indianapolis Development Corporation
and the Concord Community Development Corporation.

According to the National Transportation Enhancements
Clearinghouse, State DOTs have directed 19 percent of all Transportation
Enhancement funds programmed since 1992 to projects like Indianapolis' A
Greener Welcome. This percentage is due in part to the fact that the program is
administered as a form of local aid in most States, and the project ideas and
priorities are driven by local participation. "For many communities, given the
opportunity to request funding for locally driven projects, art is a priority,
not an optional addendum," adds Lukacs.

Economic Development

One major reason for
integrating art into transportation infrastructure is its impact as an economic
development strategy. When the city of Rochester, NY, prepared to widen and
resurface University Avenue, planners were caught by surprise when neighbors
instead asked for the opposite -- a narrower road. This conversation was made
possible because of an innovative program called Neighbors Building Neighborhoods
that was created in the early 1990s by then Mayor William Johnson in response
to the urban decline that Rochester and many other U.S. cities had suffered
after the 1960s. With the city losing jobs and the tax base shrinking, as part
of his campaign platform, Living Within Our Means: A Blueprint for Change, Mayor Johnson looked for creative but feasible
ways to promote Rochester's economic development. The Neighbors Building Neighborhoods
program empowered citizens to address the issues confronting them in partnership
with government.

This colorful vertical mosaic is part of
ARTWalk in Rochester, NY, a unique
outdoor museum and economic
development success story located
in the public right-of-way and
constructed with Transportation
Enhancement funds from FHWA.

The input of the neighbors transformed the widening of University
Avenue into an economic development initiative. The community realized that,
while the purpose of the avenue was to connect people and places, goods and
markets, and workers and jobs, the street did more than just connect -- it also
took up space in a central area of the town, and that right-of-way was valuable
real estate. With an extra boost from a $232,800 Transportation Enhancement
award for sidewalks, benches, and other pedestrian facilities, the city
implemented a new design featuring fewer driving lanes and increased parking.
The design also incorporated art installations along the sidewalk, as well as
artistic elements, such as imprints and coloring in the sidewalk material, and
in the design of functional street elements like bus shelters and benches.

Today, University Avenue is home to ARTWalk, an urban art trail
connecting museums, galleries, shops, and public spaces. A 2007 study by
Americans for the Arts found that the arts have a nearly $200 million annual
direct impact in Monroe County, where Rochester is located. Indeed, ARTWalk has
been so successful at revitalizing the economy of the surrounding neighborhood
that the city is currently constructing a second phase, scheduled to be
completed in fall 2012, featuring engraved sidewalks, performance spaces, light
sculptures, and an interactive science-themed installation near the Rochester
Museum & Science Center.

Economic development was also the impetus for the city of Edmonds
in Washington State when it commissioned a market analysis of the State Route
99 corridor in 2004. The report identified a plaza with a cluster of local
businesses including international markets and products as an opportunity for
growth as an international district. Once again, local dollars are being
combined with Federal funding from the Transportation Enhancement program to
complete a neighborhood branding project through improvements in transportation
infrastructure. The project, "Eight Luminaries" by artist Pam Beyette, will
consist of eight lanterns, seven lining the sidewalk and integrated into the
new streetscape light standards, while the eighth will be a 14-foot
(4.3-meter)-tall painted steel sculpture. The artwork will help articulate the
Edmonds International District's identity through a functioning streetscape,
including pedestrian lights, new signs, and a signature sculpture. Thanks to
these improvements, the businesses of the international district anticipate increased
foot traffic and revenues after the project is completed in summer 2012, which
also will benefit the State and local tax bases.

Placemaking Through Design

Projects like "Eight Luminaries" represent more than just a
way to stimulate the economy, however. Incorporating the local culture into
transportation infrastructure through art is also a placemaking and wayfinding
tactic. For example, once generic and thoroughly utilitarian, bicycle racks
with artful designs are today a hot trend in many U.S. cities, attracting media
attention from major outlets, including USA
Today and The New
York Times. Small, inexpensive (custom racks can range from $500 to
$5,000 each), and easy to install, these racks can be a surprisingly easy way
to reflect local culture or identify the neighborhood or city through
incorporated design elements such as color and shape.

For an installation on New York City's Wall Street, David Byrne,
perhaps best known as a member of the rock band Talking Heads, designed a
bicycle rack in the shape of a dollar sign. He also created a number of other
designs keyed to specific locales, and NYCDOT has installed them throughout the
city. Further north, in Buffalo, bicycle racks bear the logo of Green Options
Buffalo, a local nonprofit that funds the racks.

After a marketing study identified
the international district in Edmonds,
WA, as an opportunity for economic
growth, the city commissioned an
artist to reenvision the streetscape
to articulate a visual identity for the
area. The first step was this artist's
rendering of new lamps and signage
superimposed on a photograph of an
existing street and sidewalk.

In both cases, the bicycle rack is a useful piece of street
furniture that also indicates where you are. The identity of the place is
clear, yet presented more elegantly than on a traditional street sign. According
to Justin Booth, executive director of Green Options Buffalo, "the demand for
the racks continually outstrips our capacity to fill requests. We set it up so
that businesses can request a rack within the public right-of-way...The city
invested resources for 25 racks, and we had more than 400 individual requests
with a minimum of 2 racks per location. This has encouraged continuous
investment and promotion of the program by the city."

Customization can instill local
flavor into a functional piece of
street infrastructure such as bicycle
racks. This bright blue bicycle rack
in Buffalo, NY, bears the logo of
Green Options Buffalo, the nonprofit
organization that funds the
installation of the racks.

Ameliorating Transportation Impacts

Engaging the public, supporting economic development, and
localizing design are all positive aspects of incorporating art into
transportation and creating a sense of place. Art is "not a Band-Aid®,"
Feuer says, but it can help to mitigate some negative impacts of transportation
infrastructure that impede placemaking, such as blank walls, neighborhood separations,
anonymous and repetitive design, and machine-scale structures created as a
result of some transportation projects.

Beautification efforts matter.
Research into psychology and the built environment has shown again and again
that aesthetics count: people want to frequent places that are beautiful and
avoid those that are ugly. For example, a 2004 study, "Changes in Neighborhood
Walking Are Related to Changes in Perceptions of Environmental Attributes,"
published in the Annals of Behavioral
Medicine revealed that men who reported positive changes in
aesthetics and convenience were twice as likely to increase their walking.
Similarly, women who reported positive changes in convenience were more than
twice as likely to increase their walking.

The history of modern surface transportation in the United States
is one of tremendous accomplishment but also harm (displacing neighborhoods,
traffic noise, and air emissions, for example). The enormous body of
administrative law and court cases that have grown up along with the interstate
highway system provide ample evidence of this, as noted in the article "Surface
Transportation and Administrative Law: Growing Up Together in the 20th Century," published in the Transportation Research Board's Transportation Research Record 1527.
Incorporating art and transportation not only delivers benefits, but can help
mitigate some of this harm. This was the case in Indianapolis, where the bland,
uniform appearance of I-70 created an objectionable aesthetic for the community
around it, ultimately leading the community to pursue A Greener Welcome.

Unique bicycle racks, such as this
one shaped like a dollar sign and
installed on Wall Street in New York
City, are not only functional pieces of
street infrastructure but also provide
wayfinding clues to pedestrians.

For the Barrio Anita neighborhood in Tucson, AZ, the widening of
I-10 and the addition of noise walls addressed a transportation need and
mitigated one negative impact (noise), but it also created a substantial
barrier that literally walled off Barrio Anita from neighbors and resources
west of the roadway. A 1999 Transportation Enhancement award enabled the
neighborhood to reclaim the noise wall through a participatory public art
process that transformed an ugly barrier into a neighborhood gathering place.
The Barrio Anita Neighborhood Association led
the application process and worked with the city of Tucson's transportation
department and the Tucson Pima Arts Council to select an artist. Ultimately,
artist Joshua Sarantitis and photographer William Wilson engaged
community members to help identify a central symbol for the piece, local
tortilla maker and centenarian Josefa Carrillo. A small park adjacent to the
north mural wall includes seating, tables, and a trellis where the public can
gather to appreciate the art.

Public art shows that a place is cared for, owned, and attractive.
According to NYCDOT's Feuer, in New York City subway stations, art not only
helps to distinguish one station from another, providing visual cues to let
riders know they have reached their destinations, but also helps riders feel
safer knowing they are not in a forgotten or neglected space.

Oberg at Rails-to-Trails Conservancy reports a similar effect on
the Morgana Run Trail in Cleveland's Slavic Village. Where a rail line once
reinforced a hard boundary, a trail has opened up new opportunities for
recreation and active transportation. Art has played a key role in facilitating
this transition. On windowless walls that otherwise might attract graffiti and
vandalism, colorful murals instead welcome trail users and create destinations
along the route, which "gives people another reason to get out and be active,"
Oberg says.

Finding Funding

How would a transportation agency go about incorporating art
into a transportation project? In a time of tight Federal, State, and local
budgets, identifying funding to cover the cost of public art can be
challenging. FHWA's Transportation Enhancement activities help fill that need,
expanding travel choice, strengthening local economies, improving local quality
of life, and protecting the environment, all through innovative projects
related to surface transportation.

Devoting a fraction of the overall cost of constructing federally
funded transportation infrastructure to quality improvements enables smaller
communities to commission major artwork. Federal funding also makes possible
large-scale projects that cross many jurisdictions, such as New Mexico's
Cultural Corridors program, which placed art alongside two of the State's
national scenic byways: the historic El Camino Real and Route 66. Many
communities have adopted a similar strategy by setting aside a percentage of
the budget on local capital construction projects for art, typically 1 percent.
In fact, more than 60 communities in the United States have "percent for art"
ordinances.

When noise walls were
required to mitigate traffic
sounds associated with
widening I–10 in Tucson,
AZ, murals painted on the
walls transformed them
into a colorful expression
of community pride.

Partnerships with the private sector, such as the one created by
Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc., also can be effective for generating both
dollars and manpower. In addition, place-based art can be a powerful catalyst
for organizing revenue-generating street festivals and events, such as Rochester's
ARTWalk Alive! and Cleveland's Morgana Run 5K, which also offer sponsorship
opportunities to involve the private sector. In Buffalo, a local brewery
created a bicycle-themed beer and dedicated a percentage of its sales to the
cost of installing bicycle racks. This community-minded gesture yielded not
only hundreds of bicycle racks for the city but also one of the brewery's
top-selling products.

Upfront costs, however, are only the
first piece of the puzzle. Permanent art requires maintenance. "You can't just
put it in and walk away," Feuer says, unless the art is a temporary piece, such
as the sculptures on Washington, DC's New York Avenue. In fact, the city's DDOT
has developed an effective approach that could set the stage for a national
model. Washington often partners with local business improvement districts to
install and manage innovative transportation projects ranging from streetscapes
and alternative lighting to stand-alone monumental art pieces like the sculptures
on New York Avenue. With dedicated revenue streams for maintenance efforts,
business improvement districts are ideal partners for public art projects.

What Is a Business Improvement District?

Business improvement districts serve as innovative
economic development and revitalization tools for urban areas across the
country. Though these districts range in size, function, and structure, they
typically have a common interest in improving the quality and types of services
available in their areas, promoting economic development, providing a
collective voice for a given area, and working with public agencies to obtain
funding for projects. Typical activities include street cleanup and trash
collection, security patrols, capital improvements, marketing, and event
staging.

The districts operate on an additional tax imposed on
properties, businesses, or consumers in the defined area. A district typically
requires an act of the local legislature to define the boundaries and establish
the revenue stream, and participation is mandatory for the businesses within
the district. A business improvement district is usually governed by either a
quasi-governmental agency or a nonprofit organization with 501(c)(6) tax
status.

Garnering Political Will

Another major challenge in integrating art and transportation
is establishing political support. NYCDOT has decades of experience with this
process. Feuer says public art boosters need to obtain buy-in from both
external and internal constituencies, and "each is equally important." Internal
constituencies consist of stakeholders within DOTs, while external
constituencies include members of the public, arts organizations, community
groups, elected officials, and, of course, artists.

With artists, Feuer has seen significant progress over the course
of her career. In the past, major artists and galleries showed little interest
in working in transportation, in part because of the bureaucracy and committee
review required. More recently, though, the arts world "has learned the value
of the [transportation] venue," Feuer says. Even internationally renowned
artists now collaborate with transportation agencies to create signature
pieces. One example is Roy Lichtenstein's (1923-1997) Times Square Mural installed
in a subway station at 42nd and Broadway in New York City.

Trailside murals turned blank industrial walls into a welcoming reason to get outdoors on the Morgana Run Trail in Cleveland, OH.

Appreciation of public art among travelers and the community also
has grown and diversified as more people realize its benefits. Today, public
art can be original and cutting edge, as exemplified by the 35-foot
(10.7-meter)-tall Cleveland Public Art sculpture "Rotoflora": a giant allium
flower made from recycled bicycle rims that serves as a marker for the Morgana
Run Trail's East 49th Street trailhead. However, originality needs
to be weighed against local support. Transportation projects involve changing
the environment, which can sometimes engender political and popular
controversy; in addition, they usually mean increased public expenditures --
also a fraught venture. As a result, public art has a special need to garner
goodwill.

The key to building political support is to emphasize that art in
transportation is not frivolous. Instead, beautiful street furniture, trails,
and highways provide more benefits than do ugly ones.

In terms of internal constituencies, Wendy
Feuer emphasizes the importance of establishing champions within State and
local DOTs who can get the ball rolling, and the word-of-mouth that then
exponentially gets others onboard. One change that has taken place in recent
years is that the mindset in many DOTs has largely shifted from "Why?" to "Why
not?" Art advocates at nonprofits and within DOTs report that garnering
political support has become easier in the
past few years.

"Art has moved from decoration to something more wholly
integrated into transportation," says Greg Peckham, executive director of
Cleveland Public Art. "The challenge is changing people's point of view that
art is what you do after everything else is taken care of. We have turned a
corner. Artists are given a place at the table."

That said, NYCDOT's Feuer underscores that it is important to
remember that "art is not the mission. You also need to be sympathetic and care
about the mission of the agency. There are so many talented, smart, and
dedicated people who work in these agencies, and they are your partners."

Art in transportation is not just beautiful; it is functional and
serves the needs and goals of projects.

Defining the Scope of Work

Using Federal funds for art carries challenges. Defining a
scope of work and structuring a public art procurement process that complies
with Federal competition requirements and State DOT procedures is not something
the average transportation project manager has a lot of experience doing. In
fact, the Michigan DOT had never procured a public art project when the
Ambassador Bridge project came along. Agency officials had to outline the
process from scratch. Developing a scope for an art project requires a specific
skill set, so the department engaged a consulting firm to develop and
administer the process, including assembling a selection committee, issuing a
request for qualifications, conducting the competition, and facilitating
community forums.

Other States, such as Arizona and Washington, have partnered with
local arts commissions to administer public art projects. However, attempts at
collaboration are often a challenge when the engineering-based world of
transportation meets the subjective, aesthetics-based world of art. When artist
Pam Beyette responded to the call for proposals for the Edmonds, WA, project
that ultimately would become "Eight Luminaries," little did she know that the
greatest obstacle would simply be the persistence required. Begun in 2006, the
project faced a number of bureaucratic hurdles involving several agencies and
required the artist's ongoing engagement to keep the concept fresh and alive
through its estimated completion in 2012.

Challenges like the ones faced by
Beyette are not unusual in art-transportation projects. However, in exchange
for her patience, Beyette had the opportunity to change the face of a community
in a way that is both meaningful and highly visible.

Making It Stick

Infrastructure provides a unique canvas for art: together,
they create "postcard moments" that people remember. The cross-pollination of
art and transportation delivers significant benefits to projects and
communities, including real and valuable public participation, economic
development, and improved wayfinding and local branding.

Although art in transportation
has come a long way, with many success stories stemming from installations
along trails and at major airports and rail stations, the highway environment
remains a fertile frontier for growth. Although some communities seem convinced
of its value, in others, artistic interests still need to elbow their way into
the discussion. In those cities and towns, convincing engineers, politicians,
and other stakeholders of the value of art is an ongoing endeavor. Nonetheless,
each new success story makes it clearer that art in transportation increases
public involvement and sense of community, stimulates local economies, and
ultimately makes places stronger.

"Rotoflora," shown here, is a 35-foot (10.7-meter)-tall allium flower made out of recycled bicycle rims. The sculpture is installed at the trailhead of Cleveland's Morgana Run Trail.

Tracy Hadden Loh is the research manager at the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy in Washington, DC,
where she also directs the National Transportation Enhancements Clearinghouse.
She holds a combined bachelor of arts/bachelor of science degree in urban
studies and computational math from Brown University and is currently a Ph.D.
candidate in the city and regional planning program at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Andréa Livi Smith, Ph.D., is an assistant professor
of preservation planning and the director of the Center for Historic
Preservation at the University of Mary Washington. Trained as an urban planner
as well as a preservationist, Smith has focused her research on the
intersection of urban design, transportation, and preservation.